What's it finally gonna be, 18 or 21? This is a question that has risen in America many times and after little debate is normally shot down. The question to lower the drinking age is not a new question being asked by teens. In fact in America today approxiamently 70 % of all college student engage in alcohol consumption illegally.* Alcohol is something that has been around since the Medieval period and something that has had many restrictions placed on it throughout the course of the years. Today in the United States you must be 21 years of age to legally engage in any type of alcohol consumption. The real question lies in why we place this limit at 21? Has research shown that a 21-year-old is more responsible and more apt to consume alcoholic beverages in a safe, efficient manor. In fact research has shown quiet the opposite. Research has shown that at age 18, teenagers are realizing a greater level of responsibility thereby showing a higher level of maturity. With a high level of maturity one may assume that with all the responsibilities already placed on late teens that they should have some type of reward or extra privilege.
In 1629 it was told about a substance that, when drank, would alter the way your mind and body works so monks were told to never drink it in excess.* That was the beginning of restrictions being placed on alcoholic beverages. Since that period alcohol has had many laws and many restrictions even being outlawed by law before in the United States only to be overturned after the vicious alcoholic public basically lobbied against it. Now; however the government has decided that it is acceptable to drink but you must be 21 years of age to do so. A person may often wonder where they got the number 21. It's obvious that the legislators didn't spend time or money researching an adequate age. It's even more obvious that public opinion was never used to shape this policy.